a likely prospect

Oil men survey a likely prospect

What may be the world’s biggest recent oil find is being outlined in the lagifu field in PNG’s Southern Highlands. The excitement is already being felt in Australian sharemar kets where there has been strong upward pressure on the stock of the partners in PPL 17, the lease that covers this field.

Interest is centred on lagifu 3, the well which confirmed the width of the field and yielded flow rates of up to 4,000 barrels per day. Estimates of the size of the field now go as high as 500 million barrels. Further discoveries are also expected in the region with as many as ten other large formations listed for drilling.

The huge prospects of the area, regarded as an extension of similar oil producing zones in neighbouring Indonesia, are illus trated by activity at the drillsite following the initial discovery. Things looked impor tant enough for senior executives of the senior American partner Gulf Oil to fly over the remote area seeking possible pipeline routes.

Also, the huge platform carried on drilling and found further reserves, this time gas. And if there is a second, deeper oil reserve, the economic viability of the field will be substantially upgraded.

Denis Reinhardt.